Food obviously played a great role in the way my family and I spent our thanksgiving. There was a great deal of eating for everyone including myself, with very little thought put into the health of the food. Even the people like my uncle and cousin, whom are normally very conscious of what they eat, did not care much on thanksgiving. The only person who changed the way they eat was my stepmother, who had a diabetes test the following day and was instructed not to eat much sugar. It is interesting the way that people go about handling illnesses. There are so many studies done and antibiotics made to prevent or cure them and yet issues that seem to be easier to avoid, like obesity, are still so common. Nobody in my family is obese but several people of the elder generation have suffered from diabetes. This has never been much of a concern to me, however as I grow older it may.
Fortunately there are not many people in my family that have been seriously ill or died. On my mother’s side, where I usually spend thanksgiving, my grandfather has passed quite some time ago, and my grandmother’s father is seriously ill. I hardly knew my grandfather so his death was not a very big deal to me. My great-grandfather however, was always a family man. He was always there for the family and when he had his stroke a few years back everything changed. That thanksgiving, my grandmother went upstate to visit him along with the rest of her siblings. That was the first thanksgiving that I can remember where there was a small dinner. Normally it is my siblings and I, my mother and stepfather, my grandmother and her father, all of my uncles, and sometimes my grandmother’s siblings as well. Ever since my great-grandfather had his stroke, the holidays were simply not the same.
As for my fathers side, the only death that really impacts our family occasions is that of my aunts’ mother. It impacts it in a very weird way. During all of our family gatherings, some sort of discussion arises involving her or her death. On thanksgiving, it was who will inherit her house, in Trinidad. Being that it is after her death, some may view this as a negative conversation. As my aunts were discussing it, my grandfather intervened and asked that the topic of conversation be changed to a more cheerful one and it almost turned into a big deal. I think that death should not be viewed as negative for all people must die someday and my great aunt had a very long full life with lots of happiness. We should be thankful that she had a good life and reflect on it with joy rather than view in negatively.
I suppose these conversations can be seen as a sort of traditional thing. My family has never been very into football, more of baseball people, so we all usually sit around and talk. Coffee is made, deserts served, music played, some dancing, but mostly talking. The conversation usually does not stray far from family memories, sometimes connecting into recent events, but usually things I am not familiar with. They reflect on things that they went through in Trinidad, and how things were so different there than they are here. When with my mom, it’s usually sharing childhood stories of my mother and her brothers. They talk about the silly trouble they got into and their sibling troubles as well as when they display love for each other. I look forward to being in their shoes and having my own stories to share. This is as close to a family tradition that my family and I have.
